Chris Festa, born in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

on September 5, 1985, is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver. Festa raced the #9

Dallara Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created "D ...

for

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, NTT IndyCar Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech ...

in the

Indy Pro Series Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...

in 2007. He also served as Target Chip Ganassi Racing's development driver where he did all the test and development driving for the team's IndyCar program during the 2007 and 2008 Seasons. His work contributed heavily to the win in the 2008 Indy 500 and 2008 IndyCar Series Championship for Scott Dixon. As of the end of the 2007 season he has made 39 IPS starts with a best finish of 2nd (3 times) and won the pole for the first race of the 2007 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Festa finished 6th, 8th, and 10th in series points in his first three seasons in the Pro Series, respectively. He previously competed in the

Toyota Atlantic The Atlantic Championship is a formula race car series with races throughout North America. It has been called Champ Car Atlantics (after its former name), Toyota Atlantics (due to the series' previous history of using Toyota-powered engines) ...

series in 2004 for Rahal Letterman Racing where he was teammates with Danica Patrick. and finished 8th in series points at the age of 18. Chris Festa was a surprise addition to the #7

SAMAX Motorsport SAMAX Motorsport was a racing team owned by Peter Baron that competed primarily in the Rolex Sports Car Series but also spent one year in the IndyCar Series. Team history The team was founded in 2005 by fielding a car for Mark Greenberg at the 6 H ...

Daytona Prototype A Daytona Prototype is a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the Grand American Road Racing Association's Rolex Sports Car Series as their top class of car, which replaced their main prototype racing class, specifically ...

team for the 2007

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

, but drove well and the team finished a respectable 6th place. He returned to the series, now known as the Firestone Indy Lights Series driving for the new Alliance Motorsports team. Festa left the team after 7 races with a best finish of 5th in the season opener at Homestead-Miami after the team's funding ran out. He finished 22nd in points. Over the course of Festa's career, he won over 60 races and was known for his aggressive style. Festa is a brother of

Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colo ...

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

. Festa is now retired from professional racing and is currently living in Atlanta, Georgia.

Complete motorsports results

American Open-Wheel racing results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in ''italics'' indicate fastest race lap)

USF2000 National Championship results

Atlantic Championship

Indy Lights

External links

Official Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Festa, Chris 1985 births American racing drivers Atlantic Championship drivers Indy Lights drivers Living people North American Formula Renault drivers Racing drivers from Atlanta U.S. F2000 National Championship drivers Florida State University alumni Arrow McLaren SP drivers Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers Cheever Racing drivers Chip Ganassi Racing drivers